Ceramic Slab Building Techniques

It flattens out the clay and makes it ready to use.

Ceramic slab building techniques.

Modern potters and ceramic sculptors have embraced the slab creating works using both soft slabs and stiff leather hard slabs. Next you turn a giant wheel and the slab roller rolls over the clay like a steam roller. Before potters began using pottery wheels simple tools were used to create clay pottery. The machine then has a piece of cloth connected to it which you lay on top of the clay.

Pinchpot coiling and slab techniques. The aim is to explore and explain most of these methods through step by step images and text using a varied range of both pots and sculpture. In order to work a slab roller you lay your clay on a long strip of cloth. Found in indian and mesopotamian architecture ceramic tiles are believed to have been constructed from slabs of clay since 14 000 b c.

How to slab clay. Slab pots tend to be a bit tougher to produce technically speaking than those created using other. Before potters had the wheel they were creating beautiful pots and clay forms using clay their hands and fingers and basic hand tools. More on soft slab pottery.

Effigy urn in the form of the sun god from 12th 14th century mesoamerica is formed from a slab of unglazed clay also called earthenware. Which is formed by joining flat slabs of clay together. Today slab pots and slab building techniques are experiencing a renewed popularity. The figure s elaborate garb jewelry and headdress represent the.

Slabbing clay is a handbuilding pottery technique that has been around for centuries. This broad approach to slab work shows a wide variety of building methods and shows the work of many high profile makers in this area. Basic pottery hand building techniques. Liz zlot summerfield is also an excellent resource for slab building techniques.

To get you started check out this article by daryl baird on using slump molds with soft slabs. Most do not realize the infinite world of hand building and the artistic possibilities it opens. Most ancient cultures gravitated to the pottery wheel for the creation of vessels. The most common handbuilding techniques are pinch pottery coil building and slab building.

To make a pinch pot one inserts a thumb into a ball of clay and continually pinches the the clay between the thumb and fingers while rotating to thin. If you have caught the slab pottery bug you ve come to the right place for inspiration. Slabbing clay is a technique the includes. Birdie boone works with super thin slabs to make.